From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
To: "Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason" <avarab@gmail.com>
Cc: git@vger.kernel.org, "H . Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] cat-file doc: document that -e will return some output
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2018 14:09:13 -0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <xmqqk1wpz7qu.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <xmqqtvvtz95g.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com> (Junio C. Hamano's message of "Wed, 10 Jan 2018 13:38:51 -0800")
Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:
> Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> The -e option added in 7950571ad7 ("A few more options for
>> git-cat-file", 2005-12-03) has always errored out with message on
>> stderr saying that the provided object is malformed, currently:
>>
>> $ git cat-file -e malformed; echo $?
>> fatal: Not a valid object name malformed
>> 128
>>
>> A careful reader of this documentation would be mislead into thinking
>> the could write:
>>
>> if ! git cat-file -e "$object" [...]
>
> It is arguable if such a reader is careful or careless. I'd rather drop
> s/careful // there ;-)
Actually the phrasing around here was a bit strange, and I ended up
rewriting a bit more.
cat-file doc: document that -e will return some output
The -e option added in 7950571ad7 ("A few more options for
git-cat-file", 2005-12-03) has always errored out with message on
stderr saying that the provided object is malformed, like this:
$ git cat-file -e malformed; echo $?
fatal: Not a valid object name malformed
128
A reader of this documentation may be misled into thinking that
if ! git cat-file -e "$object" [...]
as opposed to:
if ! git cat-file -e "$object" 2>/dev/null [...]
is sufficient to implement a truly silent test that checks whether
some arbitrary $object string was both valid, and pointed to an
object that exists.
Signed-off-by: Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2018-01-10 22:09 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2018-01-10 12:55 [PATCH 0/2] the cat-file -e option doesn't work as documented Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2018-01-10 12:55 ` [PATCH 1/2] cat-file doc: document that -e will return some output Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2018-01-10 21:38 ` Junio C Hamano
2018-01-10 22:09 ` Junio C Hamano [this message]
2018-01-10 12:55 ` [PATCH 2/2] cat-file: -e should not emit output on stderr Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2018-01-10 20:43 ` [PATCH 0/2] the cat-file -e option doesn't work as documented Junio C Hamano
2018-01-10 20:50 ` Junio C Hamano
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